GB72
Money List Winner
The American franchise and draft model would simply not work here where there is a whole network of clubs rather than simply one league. Players are scouted and ranked from early high school and colleges recruit them based on this. Once at college the NFL teams and analysts scout them for when they are eligible for the draft. 99% of players come through this system - compare that to PL clubs who need scouting networks all over the world. The draft method can encourage poor performance to obtain more valuable picks also.
Not sure I agree with a salary cap - rugby union certainly is a good example of it with the Wasps and Worcester situations and also Saracens cheating it to achieve some of their success. Salary caps seem to work best where the player pool is largely restricted such as US sports or NRL/Super League (even in those there were high profile instances of cheating such as Melbourne Storm)
So the current model of whoever can throw the most money at a club and inflate costs beyond what others can afford is the best way of generating a competitive sporting league. Agree that we do not have the set up for a draft. Salary caps are a better option. Not sure what the issue is with Wasps and Worcester, they spent money they did not have to spend up to the cap. The cap is there to keep some parity in the league not to prevent heinous financial stupidity infortunately. Saracens cheated and were relegated. Can we see the same happening to City if found guilty. No system is foolproof to cheating but the mark of the system is how the cheats are punished.
My thought has always been one to stop wage and transfer inflation without causing massive upset. Set a salary cap of £500000.00 a week (£26 million a year) so it is high enough and have transfer fees set at the remaining salary on the contract with a max of a 5 year contract. That would top the transfer fee at £130 million but that would be for someone who was bought and sold on the same day. Most with a couple of years on teh contract could move for a more reasonable £50 million. All costs and agent fees are paid out of the transfer fee and not over and above.
Maybe those are not the ideal solutions but surely it is getting near time to put something in place to level the spending out across the top leagues so as it returns to being a sporting competition as opposed to being a financial one.